My first bath in six years UNDP, May 24, 2005
http://www.undp.org/regions/asiapacific/Afgh240505.shtml MAZAR-I-SHARIF-- Water drips in a slow tip-tap into a red bucket standing on the white marble of a brand new public bathhouse in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, in Afghanistan. Forty-year-old Mohammed Sarder, gently shampooing his four-year-old son, Azar, smiles and says "its my first bath in six years". Public bathhouses or hammams have served for hundreds of years as community hygiene centres and public forums. World-renowned Afghan mystic and philosopher, Rumi, illustrated the importance of the hammam in Afghan culture in his manuscript Mathnawi. The classic work contains several hammam adventures, including the tale of a male masseuse who served in a female bathhouse in Mazar-i-Sharif, Rumi's hometown. What makes this hammam special is that for many people, it is their first bath in six years. Public bathing was considered a crime under the Taliban regime; therefore, communities were denied this important hygiene and social forum. "It was a big problem", says Mrs. Sakina Delgeer, a 45-year-old schoolteacher. "Hardly anyone could afford a warm and clean bath", she recalls, adding that another factor contributing to their hardship was the drought (1998-2001) - the worst ever in living memory. In 2003, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) initiated a project with funds from the European Commission to construct and rehabilitate 19 hammams in the major cities of Mazar-i-Sharif in the north, Kandahar in the south and Jalalabad in the east. This was, in fact, after the UNDP Project Implementation Unit had successfully delivered the rehabilitation of 30 public bathhouses in the capital, in Kabul, a year earlier. The UNDP PIU Chief Engineer, Qudratullah Hamid says that lessons learnt during the first phase helped the joint team of the Ministry of Urban Development and Housing and the UNDP PIU to bring improvements during the design and construction of new hammams. "The new hammams have been constructed based on traditional structures combined with new technologies that provide for better public health and sanitation", said Hamid addressing the local media and press during the hammam inauguration in Mazar-i-Sharif. Under the project agreement, the newly constructed hammams in Mazar- i-Sharif, Kandahar and Jalalabad revert to the municipality, while one in each city becomes the property of the local council of women. The Chair of Mazar-i-Sharif Women's Shura, Mrs. Sediqa Safi says her council will use the income generated from the hammam revenue to fund basic capacity-building and women empowerment projects. "Many women of our shura are unable to read and write. We will launch literacy courses for them as soon as the fund accumulates", she adds. Hammams are experiencing a major rebirth as thousand of men and women in Afghanistan, who lack access to hot, clean, running water, return en masse to this traditional form of bathing. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Know an art & music fan? Make a donation in their honor this holiday season! http://us.click.yahoo.com/.6dcNC/.VHMAA/Zx0JAA/uTGrlB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -- This is ZESTGlobal. Post articles on international affairs to [email protected] If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTGlobal by sending a blank mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTGlobal/join/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTGlobal/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
